News of Chef Paul Prudhomme’s death last week shook the restaurant industry—and particularly the New Orleans culinary scene, for which the chef and his French Quarter restaurant, K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, were longtime icons.

“He was one of those special people,” said Ralph Brennan, president of New Orleans-based Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, calling the chef “a great cook with an incredible palate.”

New Orleans Chef John Besh said that he met Prudhomme at the age of 11, knowing even then that he “wanted to follow in (the chef’s) footsteps.”

“He selflessly passed his television show onto me with the directions to continue to share our great cuisine and culture with the world,” Besh said in a statement. “He also carved the way for chefs to break out of the kitchen, into entrepreneurship, and called each of us to follow his example.”